SONDERMANN | Is it time to send a scientist to the Senate? – coloradopolitics.com

Hippocrates, not a bad source at the moment, is thought to have originated the phrase, Drastic times call for drastic measures.

His reference was to disease and extreme cures. But, perhaps, a similar curative might be the prescription for an ailing, diseased political system.

With a primary coming soon for the U.S. Senate nomination, Democrats (along with unaffiliated voters wanting to participate) will be confronted with a choice between two standard-issue candidates, both long on the Colorado scene.

John Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff are each able politicians whove been around the block many times. But neither comes close to qualifying as fresh or new. Or, more importantly, as a drastic, on-point response to this particular juncture.

My place is not to offer an endorsement. However, it is to call out and highlight a below-the-radar alternative who merits on-the-radar attention.

The name of that candidate is Trish Zornio. Here are four quick reasons why she might be worthy of a serious look.

First, Zornio has an abundance of brain cells. That still counts for something. Second, she is a scientist; the real kind with real credentials. Third, she is only in her mid-30s and represents generational change in a party demonstrably needing it. Fourth, stating the obvious, shes a she and would break that hard-to-believe barrier of supposedly progressive, enlightened Colorado having never sent a female to the U.S. Senate.

Think of many of the public policy challenges of the coming decade or two. Any such list has to include genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, data privacy, automation and robotics, and biological warfare. Those are just for starters. Add in the global climate. And distressing as it is to contemplate, the coronavirus will not be the last planetary contagion with which we contend.

No one seriously suggests that we have a Senate of 100 scientists to grapple with such questions. But heres a novel idea: How about having one such senator as part of the mix?

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the group responsible for all hearings and bill-drafting on matters of science, consists of 26 members. Thats more than one-quarter of the full body. Colorados Sen. Cory Gardner is among the committee roster. The committee includes a marketing consultant; a financial adviser; two nonprofit leaders; two business honchos; a couple of tech sector folks; two farmers or ranchers; three university types; a nurse; a social worker; and, wait for it, eleven lawyers.

But not a single, solitary member with a meaningful background in the sciences.

How does that provide for smart, informed policy-making? How does that even represent critical diversity?

With so much national and even international focus on STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math), and a particular emphasis on encouraging girls and young women into the field, is it too much to expect that a measly 1% of our top legislative institution be comprised of someone with a scientific background and working experience?

True enough, science does not lead to a uniform or monolithic set of conclusions. In fact, that is the very nature of the enterprise to develop and test hypotheses, and push the bounds of knowledge.

Both parties are quick to don the mantle of science when it suits their own predisposed agenda. Further, both parties have their scientific blind spots Republicans, too often, with respect to climate change and Democrats, increasingly, on the changing technology of fetal viability, to name but two such examples.

When either party claims to be, the party of science, grab your hat and know that is a political boast rife with contradictions and inconsistencies.

But that is almost always a case of politicians adopting scientific arguments to bolster a position; not of a scientist making a case grounded, first and foremost, in scientific thinking and methodology.

After growing up in tough circumstances in small-town America, Trish Zornio became the first member of her family to earn an advanced degree. Hers was in clinical neuropsychology. She started her career as a researcher and project manager at the Stanford University School of Medicine, developing an expertise in rare and undiagnosed diseases. Seems just a tad timely.

Shes now been a proud, outdoor-loving, rock-climbing Coloradan for a full decade. On top of the insurgent campaign she is waging, Zornio teaches behavioral neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver. She also serves as the lead coordinator of the Colorado STEM and Policy Research Initiative.

Clearly, thats not the prototypical political resume. Zornio does not know her way around Colorado boardrooms and the top, deal-making, big-donation law firms. But shes banking on a simple notion, that voters tired of the same old same old might stop voting for the ultra-conventional.

For all her energy and brainpower, timing may be working against Zornio, even in this moment with a premium on scientific knowledge. Also, she may have made a critical misjudgment in foregoing her grassroots manner in favor of a stale caucus and assembly process many years past its sell-by date. Its hard to be a new candidate playing by old, antiquated rules.

COVID and the attendant stay-at-home orders have had the effect of basically freezing that nomination process. Her campaign is now on the backburner, grounded is her word, as she makes a priority of using her perspective to communicate the dos and donts and calm the anxiety of those in her substantial circle.

Colorado Democrats, including Trish Zornio, may well wake up later this month without her having qualified for the June primary ballot. She certainly grasps that possibility, even likelihood.

But just imagine if she could meet the threshold and be part of that field. What a contrast she would offer with spirited intellect, perhaps even dressed in a lab coat perfectly suited to the hour.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. His column appears regularly on Sundays in ColoradoPolitics. Reach him atEWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann

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SONDERMANN | Is it time to send a scientist to the Senate? - coloradopolitics.com